Self-destructive feeding as allomorph optimisation

Wang, Yuxuan Melody. (submitted). Self-destructive feeding as allomorph optimisation. Glossa.

Abstract: This paper re-examines self-destructive feeding, a type of overapplication opacity, and proposes a new analysis based on the commonalities shared by all attested cases. It is found that all the four cases of self-destructive feeding found in Turkish, Javanese and Japanese involve rules with non-derived environment blocking and attempt to resolve consonant clusters by making changes to the suffix. Based on these common characteristics, a unified analysis is provided to account for not only the self-destructive feeding pattern but also its related phenomena simultaneously, with the help of underspecification and positional/contextual faithfulness under Parallel Optimality Theory. Finally, it is argued that self-destructive feeding is an epiphenomenon of phonologically-conditioned allomorphy.